Thousands mock Trump's midterm setback at Tehran rally
Hours after U.S. voters stripped President Donald Trump's Republicans of control of Congress, partly over the Iran war, thousands gathered Wednesday outside the former U.S. embassy in Tehran for an annual anti-American rally.
Chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" echoed through central Tehran as demonstrators waved Iranian flags and carried banners denouncing Washington and Israel.
One banner depicted Trump as a blood-stained bulldog on a leash held by a devil-like figure resembling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Others called for revenge for slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed by the U.S.-Israeli strikes that sparked the regional war in late February.
Towering over the crowd was a giant display declaring: "The people of Iran set the price."
Beside it, black oil barrels stretched across a map of the world, a symbol of soaring energy prices since the war erupted and Iran asserted control over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route.
"America has been tormenting us for years, but it has not been able to do anything to Iran," said Mahmoudkhani, 40, who attended the rally marking the 1979 seizure of the embassy and the hostage crisis that followed.
The rally came a day after Trump's blistering US midterm bashing, widely viewed as a referendum on his turbulent second term, with frustration over living costs, a rollercoaster of tariffs and the conflict with Iran playing a major role.
"We are not happy about the surge in oil prices," said Mahmoudkhani, who gave only her last name.
"But there is some satisfaction in knowing we are no longer living this torment alone. We, alone, have been suffering under sanctions for so many years."
Tehran claiming control over Hormuz has disrupted shipping through one of the world's most important energy chokepoints, while Washington has responded with a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Majid Heidari, a 62-year-old fabric producer, argued the resulting rise in oil prices had "impacted the American vote".
"When Europe and the US unite against us, we must use our tool (closing Hormuz)," he said.
"There is nothing we can do but put some pressure on governments by making their own people feel the consequences."
Still, he doubted the US election result would really change much for ordinary Iranians.
Mohammad, a 42-year-old civil servant, shared this view.
"I believe whether it is the Democrats or the Republicans, there is no difference for us," he said.
"The U.S. government's approach towards the Iranian people has unfortunately remained the same over the past 50 years."
- 'No to war' -
In Tehran's first official reaction to the vote, its chief negotiator in talks with Washington, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, hailed the outcome.
"Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message," he wrote on X.
Efforts led by Qatar and Pakistan to broker a deal between Tehran and Washington have made little progress amid mounting concern about a return to fighting.
The annual rally marks the storming of the US embassy in Tehran in November 1979, months after the Islamic Revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The students who seized the embassy demanded the return of the shah, who was receiving cancer treatment in the U.S.
They held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, and diplomatic ties between the two countries were severed in 1980.
Iranian authorities have since turned the anniversary into an annual display of defiance against what they call Western "arrogance".
"Crown of arrogance on an empty brain," read one banner on Wednesday, showing a crown dripping with blood.
"America is the enemy regardless," said Bagheri, a 35-year-old school principal who gave only her surname.
"It makes no difference who is in charge in the United States."
Source: Agence France Presse
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